Sharjah Art Foundation annonces The March Meeting 2013 open call for speakers to participate in a series of thematic sessions and moderated panel discussions to reflect on and contextualise the concepts addressed by the theme proposed for Sharjah Biennial 11.

Yuko Hasegawa’s concept is inspired by the courtyard in Islamic
architecture as a space that accumulates the memories of a local culture and facilitates the production of new knowledge through the exchanges and encounters it hosts.
In particular, the historical courtyards of Sharjah, where elements of both public and private life intertwine, where the ‘objective’ political world and the introspective space of subjectivity intersect and overlap, suggest how the courtyard can be transformed from a place into a ‘condition’ or a catalyst. Taking inspiration from these places as both a practical site and as a metaphorical condition, this concept seeks to emphasise the role perspective and subjectivity play in the way socio-cultural spaces, geographical landscapes and physical locales are perceived, interpreted and engaged with.

 

From this perspective, new fields of investigation emerge from questions of how culture and heritage are constructed and can be drawn upon to propose contemporary national identities, or how tradition can inhabit the contemporary. In addition, this perspective also proposes the re-evaluation of the role of geography in determining the locality of cultural and artistic practices, and the extent to which the virtual realm has changed the way we experience spaces that enable exchanges of knowledge. Within this space, the international and local encounter one another and negotiate successive periods of globalisation.

 

March Meeting 2013 Open Call welcomes proposals for thematically relevant presentations grounded in applicants’ areas of expertise or experience that resonate with this year’s biennial concept. Selected Open Call applicants will be invited to present on March 17, join other March Meeting events from March 14-17, as well as attend the SB11 opening
on March 13.

 

For more information on Yuko Hasegawa’s curatorial concept for Sharjah Biennial 11, please visit.

If you would like to be considered as a candidate for the Open Call, please complete and submit the attached application form via email to:  marchmeeting@sharjahart.org . Deadline for application is December 30, 2012.

 

Cheers